Lost in Translation

Well it's been a while since I've written. And a whole lot has happened, but I've been super busy. Our break is in a week, and also Dad comes in a week, so that is exciting. Maybe I can convince him to take the MagLev train from the Airport to Pudong, I think it's the fastest train in the world, but don't quote me on that. Anyhow, that's exciting. In unexciting news we have our Chinese midterm on Friday. So that sucks. But it should be okay. Except that I've been barely passing all of my tests. But the most frustrating thing is that I'm looking over the test, and I'm getting like 2 points taken off for not putting a question mark, and one of my characters wasn't good enough, even though it was the right character. And I still got it wrong. And I'm like "Hey, isn't it cool that I actually know what character to put in this blank space" but they are like "hey you didn't write it perfectly so I'm gonna mark it wrong". But it's all good. All I have to do is pass. And I'm pretty sure they won't fail anybody who puts in effort.

In other news, I've decided I'm getting some sweet clothes made. The fabric markets here are ridiculous. It's just like an indoor mall full of different stalls with every single kind of fabric you can imagine. And you go and tell them what you want made, and they measure you and you pick your fabric. And the amazing thing is, you can take a picture of anything, and they can make it. My plan is to find a sweet suit from GQ and get it tailor made for $150. Garrett and I always talk about how ballin' it is to have a suit that's not black, so I'm going to get either a sweet grey or a sharp looking brown, if I can find it. And also a killer dark-brown tweed sport coat. And some handmade shirts. And hopefully, my wonderful family will opt to send money with my father to help fund this endeavor, because really, this is all I want for Christmas (hint hint).

Speaking of Christmas, it has occured to some fellow students and I that we will be missing the Christmas season. It will be sort of strange to get home and celebrate Christmas without all of the buildup. And also I hope they still keep selling Egg-nog for a while after Christmas. So that will be wierd.

Also, I discovered the joy of Element Fresh the other day. For those who haven't heard, Element Fresh is probably the best American restaurant in all of Shanghai. It's wonderful. It has legitimate salad. And legitimate salad dressing. And sandwhiches that are amazing. And hummus. And it's awesome. It's expensive (I spent 100 kuai on a sandwhich, salad, and the most amazing fresh squeezed apple juice ever to grace my taste buds, and 100 kuai is my more-than-ample daily budget). But really, it's about the price of a normal meal in America ($10-$12). I would also like to take this oppurtunity to make a large "suck it" sign (dX style baby!) to all of those who chose to study abroad in Europe, where they use letters. Probably the one downside to Element Fresh is that it's sort of a rich-white-asshole convention. But I've been going to one of those for like 2 and a half years now, so I'm pretty used to it (buh-dum-ching!). But really though. These are some pretentious mother you-know-whats. Like, people at Southwestern are affluent. They're upper-middle class. Children of Doctors and Lawyers and such. But these people. They're like upper class. Like, in that whole new class. And also a lot of them are European, so that doesn't help. But more on this later.

As of late, the night life has been rather exciting as well. And this weekend was interesting because I ended up sort of on both ends of the spectrum of things in the local/foreigner department. On Friday night, a lot of people in our program met up at our apartment where we enjoyed some pijiu (beer) and watched "Santa's Slay", a Christmas themed horror movie which stars Bill Goldberg (of WCW wrestling fame) as a viking-esque Santa Claus who goes on a murderous rampage through a small Minnesota town. It was as good as it sounds. After this, we made our way to Club Banana, which is the seedy local club/disco near our university. We were the only white people there. It was supposed to be sort of a guy's night, because we were going to try our luck with some of the local Chinese ladies. Turns out that Club Banana sort of lives up to its name, as there were very few girls present. I don't think it's a gay bar, but it could become one very easily. Also, it turns out some other people from our program had decided to go to Banana too, so there were plenty of ladies for us to dance with. Among the various ridiculocities that night, two of my friends were brought up on stage in order to help the guy who was singing perform a keg-stand of sorts (but with a pitcher of beer). Something was lost in translation, however, and they both ended up just trying to drink the pitcher of beer, and they were awkwardly escorted off the stage. Also, as I was dancing up on the platform at the front, I ended up falling in the gap between the two stage pieces and am now sporting some pretty serious bruises on my left leg. Luckily there were a lot of people on the stage too, so I don't think anybody saw me. So that was ridiculous. But it was fun. And the dancing was fun.

And this brings us to last night, which was Saturday. Joe, Kyle and I were sitting in our apartment trying to figure out what to do. All of us had done nothing but watch movies and lay around during the day, so were full of energy and ready to get out of the house. We were looking through the guidebook trying to find some cool bars to check out in a new part of town. We had decided on an art-deco themed place that seemed pretty cool, but the drinks were a little pricey. As we were about to leave I recieved a call from my lovely Japanese associate Risa, who told me that she had met up with some of her German friends and they were going to KTV (Karaoke) and then perhaps to a club. The KTV room was going to be free, and it was BYOB. So we were game. We gathered up some brew and headed to the KTV place. The KTV place, it turns out, was probably the swankiest place I've ever been to. It was near Jin'an Temple (which is where the Element Fresh is, which is in the shopping center under the Portman Ritz-Carlton). So anyways, we were a little out of our element. And when we arrive, Risa is there and a lot of her super-rich European friends whom she knows through a girl who went to her private boarding school in Connecticut and who attends Columbia. As I said before, we were a little out of our element. Not to mention the fact that none of us were dressed up (I was wearing my houndstooth sportcoat that I got at the Goodwill, but that was as nice as it got). The epitome of class came when Kyle, Joe, and I were sharing a fifth of Jim Beam we had purchased at the Lawsons whilst singing "Born in the U.S.A" by Bruce "the Boss" Springsteen (which I found out through reading the words was actually a scathing criticism on U.S foreign policy and the post-Vietnam era). I have never felt more like a white-trash American in my whole life. But it was awesome. And we followed the Europeans to a club that was supposed to have free drinks (one of the guys was part of a football club that was throwing a party), but that turned out to be bunk. But we club hopped and had a great time, and they were actually really cool.

And it was just nuts. I never thought I would be singing KTV with super-affluent Europeans in Shanghai, World City, China.

And I think when I graduate I'm going to try to get back here as fast as I can.